Ship Turning Rates for mods

[Suicide Junkie]

You may or may not want to use this:

Approximate
I = M * R^2

Approximate R = V^1/3, where V ~ M
I = M^(5/3)
Assume thrust is proportional to mass, for ships are usually the same speed.
The maximum torque available is Force * R, which becomes M * M^(1/3) = M (4/3)

Torque over angular momentum gives acceleration of M^(-1/3)
Since we're dealing with constant speed instead of constant acceleration, square that to get M^(-2/3)

So, unless I did something wrong,
Turn rate should be proportional to 1/ shipsize^0.6666

[Atrocities]

Ok, its official, my brain has just overloaded.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Dude; it's just a game... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

To put it simply, yes indeedy, big ships turn slower.
Not quite as bad as 1/size, but almost.

[President_Elect_Shang]

I thought the question of SE ship mass was still in debate. So what are using to calculate the mass?

[Suicide Junkie]

I'm not. It is all relative and proportional.

To use this, select one of your hulls arbitrarily and give it an arbitrary turning rate you like.
All the other hulls can then get a matching turn rate based on this.

For example, I decided arbitrarily that my scout (40kt) would have a turning rate of 0.001.
Therefore my battleship (240kt) should have a turning rate of about 0.0003
And my micro fighter (18kt) gets 0.0017

[Noble713]

Nifty. To calc the "Turn Rate Decrease per kT", we simply divide by the ship's mass, correct?

[President_Elect_Shang]

Now I am ignorant about this so please (if you feel so inclined) enlighten me. The problem I keep having when I look at the formula is the mass thing. I know torque here on a gravity making body; I do love cars! However, we are talking about space were mass has no weight to push and there is no resistance. Well ok like solar wind aside so lets say virtually no resistance. So I guess what I am saying is what is the mass? I'm confusing myself aren't I?

Speaking of cars I thought about starting a thread asking what people drive. What do you drive?

[Phoenix-D]

No weight doesn't mean no resistance. The weight goes away, but the mass and therefore the inertia does not.

[Atrocities]

I like the concept, larger ships should be maneuvering hogs. However, does any of this mean anything at all in the game? Will it matter in combat?

[Phoenix-D]

It does matter quite a bit, especially if you try to use Maximum Range on a slow turning ship.

[Suicide Junkie]

Noble713 said:
Nifty. To calc the "Turn Rate Decrease per kT", we simply divide by the ship's mass, correct?

Turn rate decrease per kt will throw off the formula, since it is additive, and nearly useless for any newtonian minded work.

You could do the math and use that to make the actual turn rate match the formula at two size points, but the rest will be off (Since the given data fields result in a linear turn rate vs mass function, while this formula gives an actual curve which is close to 1/mass)


As long as the high tech small ships are still smaller than the low tech version of the next size up, you could just use a flat turning rate across the levels, and it wouldn't be noticable in-game.